Many are making a terrible mistake inappropriately stereotyping millions of people with characteristics assigned to generational groups (such as Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial and now Gen Z). The mistake is not so much our need to put people into groups for studying and understanding things, such as sociological, political, economic, demographic or marketing trends. Those are certainly important things to do. The problem is, we as humans tend to be very careless about how easily we stereotype people, lumping them together into easy to understand groups. Is this a terrible mistake.
The Huffington Post recently ran an article, called “Did You Know: Millennials Are Lazy” by Derek Herman, that had an interesting infographic reflecting a survey of people (1,200 workers). Fortunately, the infographic is not reflective of a survey of 1,200 HR professionals, sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists, or I would be very, very dismayed with the observations of my Baby Boomer generation. According to the people surveyed, Baby Boomers are “less adaptive” and “less cooperative.” Nevertheless, it is an informative article, when one takes into account this represents how most people are thinking right now; call it “group-think” if you will. The main thing is that it actually shows that people actually believe things like, “Millennials are lazy, unproductive and self-obsessed.”
Most of the qualities and faults currently being attributed to specific generations are characteristics that change over time as people mature, not characteristics that should be permanently branded as fixed or exclusive to one group or another. Why? Simply put, we grow and change, and we cannot change the year we were born. Since the named generation groupings are defined by year of birth, we can’t change our generation, but we will mature and grow through most of the characteristics with which generational groups are being accused.
People actually believe things like, “Millennials are lazy, unproductive and self-obsessed.”
When I entered into the workforce as a late-blooming Baby Boomer, I was surprised and frustrated that people of previous generations already had staunch opinions. They were known to say, “Baby Boomers are so lazy and entitled.” These amazing older Americans, who deserved my respect for living and thriving through the depression, World War I and II, the Korean War, Jim Crow, the birth of the civil rights movement, and so much more, were now mortified by how selfish and entitled my generation was. I was incessantly told, “It’s frightening to think you Baby Boomers are our future.” I heard this at work, in church, in public, ad nauseam and with disgust. If that sounds familiar, it is because these same things were said about Generation X, and are now being said about Millennials, even by Millennials themselves, in public and now on social media… ad nauseam.
I was incessantly told, “It’s frightening to think you Baby Boomers are our future”
It is interesting to note that, consistent with the “anti-establishment” moniker my generation was accused of, it was Baby Boomers that once asserted, “Never trust anyone over 30.” When we all passed thirty, we certainly stopped saying that. I heard it said recently this has now changed to, “Never trust anyone under 30.” That philosophy and reality could not have been reversed more dramatically.
As a generation ages, they change. As Baby Boomers aged, we changed. Laziness faded away and many, if not most, became high-performers. It is unfortunate that many became workaholics, like their parents before them. The selfish and anti-establishment generation became more focused on improving their lives and their roles in their families, their jobs and their society. What was once attributed to Baby Boomers was no longer even close to being true of Baby Boomers. And it is likely the same has always been true of every generation.
So, does time make a lie out of what what was once believed to be true? Well, in this case, in a way. In this case, it made a specific lie out of the belief that “All Baby Boomers are lazy” only because what was believed to be true was not true for all time. The character weakness the generation was branded with became a strength. And this can happen again. There can be hope for the world as it is passed to the next generation. history has proven this over and over again.
The character weaknesses each generation is branded with become their strengths.
Now, one may argue that not everything we attribute to different generations is something related to aging. This argument is absolutely true. There are many things which influence thought, art, politics, and other social and personal aspects of experience, as well as the values, beliefs, and meaning we derive in life over time. Things like historic events. World War I and II, the Depression, Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President Kennedy, the Vietnam War, humans walking on the moon, Watergate and, dare I say, Disco, shaped many who were young and developing at the time.
It is also true that those born after 9/11 never knew a time in which that world-shaping event had taken place. Additionally, technology, movies, scientific discoveries, and even innovative techniques adopted by the teaching profession in our country can be attributed to influences that shaped people, and these can all be associated with points or periods of time. These events or trends can influence people in a way that may or may not change over time. These events and their impact on a generation are quite important to know and to understand, if we want to innovate communication in a way that influences people in a positive way.
What is the mistake of branding a whole generation with characteristics that have and will change over time?
Are there characteristics we should be talking about instead?
Read about this and more in Part II of this two-part series by clicking on the link below.
Here's the link to the infographic that shows the various ways generations are being talked about.
